Antonio Brown’s reality show of an offseason is nearly over, and within a week, a summer of foot drama, helmet drama, and lawn drama will give way to actual football. Before we get there, though, there are some final details to wrap up, such as the revelation that the Raiders fined the receiver $13,950 for missing a team walkthrough on August 22, and another $40,000 for missing a training camp session on August 18.
The August 18 practice was one day before Brown filed his final grievance over not being allowed to wear his preferred helmet. When he missed that practice, GM Mike Mayock said, “At this point we’ve pretty much exhausted all avenues of relief. So from our perspective, it’s time for him to be all in, or all out.” Brown was with the Raiders in Winnipeg on August 22 for a preseason game, but he simply didn’t show up to a walkthrough. When he received the letter, Brown was unsurprisingly pissed:
As former Raiders CEO Amy Trask noted, players who miss practice time or are notified about potential CBA-outlined fines are not always actually fined by their teams. Letters such as the one above can simply be intended to reserve the right to fine a player later, which gives the team leverage. But according to Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, the Raiders plan to collect. Not only will Brown have to play for head coach Jon Gruden, face the outside possibility of the Peterman throwing to him, and get the Raiders’ stink all over him, he’ll have to do so short $54K because his team ran out of patience with him a week before his debut. At least he’s finally settled on a helmet.